A New Year’s Knitting Project

Most people make New Year’s resolutions.  I’ve done that before, but not this year.  This year, I’m undertaking a project:  working on the Level 1 Master Hand Knitter certification through The Knitting Guild Association.

The materials arrived via email on Friday, 12/28.  I knew there would be a considerable amount of work involved; this level allows 12 months for completion.  But WOW!  To be honest, I’m a little overwhelmed at this point!

I’m required to complete 19 swatches (WHAT?!?!) and one research paper.  The research paper is no big deal; I love research and writing, and I have lots of resources in my book cupboard for information on the project.  The swatches aren’t huge, but they are very specific as to size, shape, and stitches used.  That’s a bit scary to me!

Expectation of Knitting Perfection

Perfection has never been my goal when it comes to knitting / crocheting / whatever craft I’m working on at the time.  I guess I subscribe to the Amish viewpoint that the only perfect beings in the universe are God and Christ, so it’s okay if I make a mistake (or 6!) in a project.

Well, not in these projects.  These swatches are going to be adjudicated by a panel of judges who are Master Knitters themselves, and there is no room for error.  (Yikes!)  According to the instructions, every swatch must be knitted perfectly and blocked perfectly.  Yes, blocked PERFECTLY!

I’ve been knitting for over 40 years, and I only learned to block work about 2 years ago. ‘Perfectly blocked’ scares the dickens out of me!  Now my school teacher mentality kicks in, and I start worrying about being perfect.  “What if I can’t do this?” and “How do I do this?” are just two of the worries bouncing around in my brain right now.  As a school teacher, I could always come up with something when a student needed more help or a class had difficulty understanding a musical theory or I had more time than I had lesson prepared. (I call this “seat of the pants” teaching.)  Teaching instinctively, my evaluators called it.  An assistant principal once told me that he’d never seen anyone who could deal with unexpected situations so well.  A great compliment, I always felt.

Terrible Knitter?

But THIS! What if I knit 19 swatches and 18 swatches are perfect (yeah, right) but one swatch isn’t perfect?  Will I fail?  Will I have to start all over again?  Will I be a TERRIBLE KNITTER?!?!  (No anxiety here, boy.)

Okay, I’ll put the Diet Dr. Pepper away for now, since the caffeine is making my brain crazy.  Herbal tea and ice water for the rest of the day, right?  Maybe I need to go play the piano.  *sigh*  Okay.

Time to start some research!

Anita